A youth movement seemed imperative for the women's volleyball team as they hosted IUPUI.-á
The Cardinals had been struggling with chemistry and consistency, as they had lost four straight before playing in Worthen Arena on Wednesday.
The Ball State University women's volleyball team took the visiting Jaguars to five games and was victorious in an ugly, hard-fought match. 3-2 (30-23, 28-30, 26-30, 30-22, 16-14).
"We definitely needed it as a team as a morale booster," sophomore Christine Kennedy said. "So I'm really excited we pulled through."
Kennedy, who has been playing on a sore ankle, had an off night offensively, as she hit seven kills on 31 attempts with eight errors.
Kennedy's contribution, however, was a match-high 14 blocks along with 15 digs.
"She's playing on one foot, and she's got a pretty bad ankle," head coach Randy Litchfield said. "She's having some trouble with her jump, but any time you put up 14 blocks in a match you've done a lot right."
Also playing well for the Cardinals was junior Brittany May, who had a team and match high 24 kills on 58 attempts for a .207 hitting percentage. The 24 kills was also a career-high for May.
"[Litchfield] always comments on my attitude, so I was really personally focused on that," May said.-á "I tried to keep motivated, and I even put this smiley face on my hand. So that was my main focus being positive just putting the ball down and being aggressive."
Some of the leaders for IUPUI were Hillary Houston and Carol Newell who had 17 kills a piece.
On Ball State's side, freshman Julie Brievogel came second in kills with 14.-áFreshman Elaina Kakatolis, senior Kirby Gibson, and Kennedy all had seven kills respectively.
Freshman Cassie Conner started the match at setter position and finished with a team-high 29 assists. Senior Amanda McCormick led the match with 31 digs.
"We've had a couple hard days," Kennedy said. "I think it's critical that our young players were able to come through in tough times and then our upperclassmen came in and finished up."
This was a big win for Ball State because of the lack of team chemistry and heart that has been evident in the past two weekends. The Cardinals were able to put the past behind them and play as a team to prevail in tough situations.
In game one, the Cardinals faced an early eight-point deficit at 3-11 before making a push and getting the first lead at 15-14 off a block kill. Ball State fell behind one game to two before winning the last two games in an energetic fashion. The Cardinals got the early lead in game four and kept it the entire set before winning 30-22. Then in game five, Ball State fell down 1-4 before fighting back and taking the lead at 5-4 after back-to-back kills by May.-á After that point, the Cardinals saw three more ties but never trailed as they won the game 16-14, capping off a much needed match win.
"This victory is huge," May said. "We've really worked at coming out of tough matches and we put what we've been practicing into play. This is huge, it was sloppy at times, but we put it away."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
